Taking in the sights and snakes of South America

Dayton resident Mary LeMieux says she has to start working on a memoir of her trip to South America just as soon as she gets a little spare time.

Mary sent me a photo she has been showing around town of her with a big anaconda snake.

She just got back from a five-month tour of the continent, which included a trip down the Amazon.

Mary left home in January after doing her homework and contacting a travel agency to personalize the trip.

"It was an independent tour made up for me," she said. "I read about different countries and made a list of what I wanted to see."

Mary then contacted a friend who owns Signature Travel in Menlo Park, Calif., and she set up the whole trip for $7,000. The Web site for Signature Travel is suzanne@zolotar.com. Mary says she was met at every stop, whether she traveled by air, train or bus.

"I saw all 13 countries," she said. "I was only in Colombia a few hours because there is so much trouble there," she said. "There was only one town in Uruguay that interested me there. But I walked all over this beautiful colonial town."

Mary met the big snake in Leticia, Colombia, where she spent some time ashore from her tour.

"In Leticia, there isn't much to do but visit the zoo, the museum and the pretty market," she said. "They had a huge anaconda. Three men were holding this snake over my shoulders and the other two ladies. I'm the person right next to the snake's head and have my lips puckered."

The former nurse moved to Dayton from Alaska in 1993 with the man who would later be her husband. The couple married in 1997 and three months later he died.

"He loved to travel. We had some nice trips together," she said. "He was just the sweetest man in the world."

Mary was barely back home when her first grandchild, Jaden Quinn LeMieux, was born in San Jose.

Carson Valley's Bob Feldman said he plans to take his father-in-law to the annual Antique Tractor Show next month.

The show will be Aug. 16 and 17 at the corner of Stephanie Way and Heybourne Road and will be eighth since Bill Ramsden started holding them in 1996 on his 10-acre parcel.

Bob said his father-in-law used to work on the old tractors.

"He repaired equipment in the field," Bob said. "He really wants to come over. He has so many good memories."

Yet another Red Hat group held tea Saturday at the Roberts House.

Paula Cannon said 14 members of the Seven Come 11 Red Hat Society met at the historic home.

"I think they are the newest groups," Paula said. "There are four or five clubs in Carson City alone. I know there is another in Gardnerville."

The requirements to join the society, inspired by the Jenny Joseph poem "When I Am An Old Woman, I Shall Wear Purple," is that members wear a purple outfit and a red hat and be over the age of 50.

It has been nearly three years since I wrote about the Red Hat Society's first gathering in Carson City. The clubs like to remain small because, as Chris Salerno said, tea for 50 just isn't tea.

We had a front row seat to Wednesday's excitement. It has been 12 years since I watched a lightning strike set a fire on Kingsbury Grade.

One strike after another hammered the Carson Range right in front of the Appeal's south windows. We got to watch the ring of fire spread out from the site of the strike. The rain that followed managed to extinguish most of the blazes.

Wife Jennifer reported that the rain in Dayton was so heavy, drivers had to pull over.

Today is is officially "Be kind to the descendants of the Masayko Tribe" day as proclaimed by his honor the Mayor Ray Masayko in recognition of the arrival of Doodoo Wah here in Carson City.

Ron DeLacy, lead singer, banjo and guitar player and the composer of most of the group's songs, traces his family back to the Macejko tribe in Slovakia, something he shares with the mayor. Doodoo Wah will conduct its first performance in Carson City today at the Capitol Complex.

The old Appeal building will be the site of the Sunset Rotary Big One Rummage Sale for all service groups and churches Aug. 9.

I got a dozen calls from folks looking for a phone number for the Rotary, after it got cut off Kim Riggs' column in Monday's edition.

To find out more about the sale or reserve a space, contact club president-elect Dr. Rex Baggett at 882-2106.

Kurt Hildebrand is acting city editor at the Nevada Appeal. Contact him at 881-1215 or e-mail him at hildebrand@nevadaappeal.com